Well according to Frank O’connor, a non-zero number of them hate Halo. Its why they were hired. If I had to guess, from the way they have mistreated the franchise, its more than 60% of them at the least.
💯. I remember the first game they made (halo 4 I think?) they had to go and introduce a whole new race just to put their own mark on the game. Guess what? The Prometheans were fucking stupid and that game sucked. I went from hardcore halo gamer to casual at best. I still haven’t finished 5 even though it’s installed on my PC.
Forza Motorsport being a flop was most upsetting to me. Probably the best funded simcade game next to Gran Turismo with a long development time and they fall flat and it still doesn’t even work on Linux. Forza Motorsport should be low hanging fruit with their experience and budget and they still managed to drop the ball
I mean… That’s part of their intentional pivot right? “Everything’s an Xbox”. They’re after subscriptions to their ecosystem. Play from your tv, tablet, phone, computer with no hassle. Not saying it’s the best or right for everyone, but it’s certinly a calculated business decision rather than a side effect of discontent by users.
Not yet, there are plans for a more expensive console/PC hybrid that Xbox division has hinted at being a thing soon; Not that anyone would probably buy it given the Steam Machine is on the horizon this year. Since Microslop has a proven track record of failure post that one time they peaked, I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually give up on console sales. They always piss on their success and never learn anything from their flops.
Idk what it is about players now, but if there is an announcement, they want the game out immediately. Another game I follow is being made by a small dev team, and they give somewhat regular updates. Multiple a year, generally timed to monthly, but like Dec got skipped for holidays. It’s almost daily someone is claiming the game isn’t coming out, it’s a scam, the game doesn’t exist, etc. And this wouldn’t have anywhere near the fan base ConcernedApe is dealing with. Just shut up and let people make the game…they don’t owe you a game, or updates about the game.
Maybe it’s cause GTA6 and TES6 are in dev hell and it’s become a meme that they aren’t releasing, but still. It’s top-shelf annoying behavior.
Obviously, this is the only sane solution for a one-man team, but all game developers need to put their foot down and say “it’s ready when it’s ready.”
No marketing deadlines, no “crunch time,” make the game until the game is made, release it, maintain it, do it again if you think you have a good idea.
That would be nice in a perfect world but bills need to be paid. I’m not defending crunch time, but not every project can afford to be “ready when it’s ready”. I don’t think many companies would survive like that.
The above comments were talking about how this policy should apply to every game development project. Which is a nice thought, but not realistic for every situation.
Oh yes, I’m sure all those billion dollar companies would have all shut down by now if they had to wait a few weeks to put out a game. Putting out buggy unplayable shit was an absolute necessity.
all game developers need to put their foot down and say “it’s ready when it’s ready.”
No marketing deadlines, no “crunch time,” make the game until the game is made
It isn’t saying publishers should be more flexible about deadline delays, it is saying there simply shouldn’t be deadlines at all.
Shoveling infinite money at a developer who tells you it will be ready when it’s ready is the Chris Roberts model of game development. While it certainly produces interesting results, it is unrealistic and undesirable to expect it as the standard.
Games that are developing well but need a little more time to fix issues should be given flexibility by publishers, but at the end of the day there are stretch ideas and content that has to be cut. Doing that cutting and keeping the project focused is what a lead on the dev team should be doing throughout the entire development. If a game has a realistic deadline given the expected scope and the dev team comes back and says they actually need another year of production, then it is worth looking into if that extra time is going to make the game a year’s worth of investment better or not.
In a publisher fronting money to developer situation, without a fixed time limit (or money limit, which functionally translates to a time limit) is the publisher just infinitely on the hook to pay for dev time “until it’s done”?
Well yeah, but not every dev and company is ConcernedApe. I reckon the same can be said of Balatro dev, and Team Cherry, and a few others. It’s awesome for them who can afford to do this, but that’s definitely not the norm. Most companies can’t afford to sit on a project for 8 years without releasing a product.
While I generally agree, I think there is some value in imposing some kind of deadline or limit to a project. Nothing is ever going to be perfect. There will always be more work that could be done on something. If you let yourself just keep going until you think it’s done it might never come out.
But it’s a balance and when publishers push those kinds of deadlines they’re not really considering that.
Publishers are considering return on investment. In a model where they are providing the game budget to the studio, every delay means more money out of their pocket. Case by case it might be worth it, but just allowing developers to infinitely say it’s “almost ready, just one more delay” isn’t reasonable.
I know from the hard core gamer audience that discusses this stuff online there is often this vibe that nothing should be cut from games. People look at various interesting cut content and lament it for not getting enough time, but there is always going to be cut content.
If there isn’t a lead on the development team putting their foot down to control the scope and focus the team, and a similar push for focus by a publisher you get a meandering unfocused project that goes over budget.
In the solo/small amateur team dev, self-publishing model that ROI pressure isn’t coming externally from a separate publisher. It is means solo devs are making their first games usually on a budget of nothing, as a side project to their day jobs. In some cases like with Concerned Ape it turns out great. In many cases development comes out tediously slowly, like with Death Trash. In innumerable cases the games just die.
In cases like Wasteland 2 it was a full professional team working full time using crowdfunding. An alternate model, but still limited by budget pressure. There was no publisher to pay back, but when the crowd funding money was gone, it was gone. That game did come out and it was enjoyable, but clearly it wasn’t “done when it’s done” levels of polish by the team since they used the profits from the game to release a “Director’s Cut” which was a whole polishing pass on the game they simply couldn’t afford the first time.
When it reaches the “good/mostly done but not perfect/could still be better” stage, it’s time to pre-release it for alpha/beta testing while you work out the kinks and add features.
I remember playing Minecraft in alpha version before it even switched to beta. It was fine.
Even full releases can have updates and expansions to add new features, it’s totally fine. But the core development of the game shouldn’t be rushed just to get it published.
I recently launched a business as a solo dev / founder. It was agonizing trying to get all the last details done and be happy enough to finally say, this is what I’m going to release.
I could have gone on forever if I’d let myself. Oh they need this, oh they need that! This other thing can be better!
Now that it’s out, that pressure is gone, and I can just do smaller updates now which are focused more heavily on the feedback I’m getting from customers.
I probably could have released 3-4 months earlier had I been better about it.
A few people seem to think I meant a game like Stardew or Chocolateir should take several years because that’s how long they take with one person. Obviously if you have a studio of people, even a small studio like early Mojang, you can get more work done much more quickly.
Obviously, I think, I mean the publisher should defer to the developers regarding how long work would take to complete, not the other way around. And no one should listen to the demands of shareholders or anyone else that is completely departed from the production process.
You’re telling me chocolate isn’t some natural pre-existing resource? Smh. Next you’re going to tell me chocolate milk doesn’t come from chocolate milk cows.
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